Getting Ready to Send the Backer PDF Link Next Week.
about 7 years ago
– Thu, Feb 02, 2017 at 09:31:42 PM
Hello Pugmire Backers!
RichT here:
As Eddy posted last month, we are getting ready to send the link for the Pugmire Backer PDF.
Next Wednesday in the late afternoon Eastern US time, we're going to Lock-Down the site, so please check your pledges on the BackerKit site between now and then, make sure you've added-on what you intend to, and if you find any issues please contact BackerKit Customer Service.
What that means is that once we Lock-Down the site you will not be able to change your pledges or Add-on to them. You will be able to still change your addresses (until we get close to
shipping and freeze the whole BK site, and we'll tell you before that
happens), and you and others outside of our backer community should
still be able to "pre-order" items on the site.
We expect that your Pugmire Backer PDF links will go out to you shortly after the Lock-Down. Expect an Update when that happens.
What's a Backer PDF Anyway?
If you haven't backed one of our Kickstarters before, a Backer PDF is not the final PDF reward that goes with your pledges (if you in fact pledged for a Reward Tier that includes the PDF).
It is basically a 0.9 version that has gone through editing and development and all our steps that we are sending out now as we've found that our backers have the best eagle-eyes in catching things that slipped through. Because no matter how many eyes we get on it, having 6,000ish eyes looking means we can really tighten the book up for the final PDF.
This Pugmire Backer PDF will also contain a few blank spots where we are still waiting for the art, again as Eddy noted last month.
As we send out the link to the Backer PDF, we'll also send you a link to an errata thread on our forums for those of you who want to send us notes. You are certainly not obligated to do that, and in fact, you do not have to download the Backer PDF if you want to wait for the final PDF and download the absolutely completed book PDF without mucking around in our process.
We'll make any tweaks and changes Eddy agrees with, add the art and the index, and then create the final PDF which will update in your DriveThruRPG.com Library of your downloaded PDFs. Then we'll use those files to set up the files for the traditionally printed Pugmire and get those files to the printer.
Thanks!
January update
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 09:21:18 PM
Hi, everyone, Rose here. Happy new year! :D
Here's Eddy's January update:
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Eddy
Welcome to the first update of 2017 -- what I hope will be a year of Pugmire!
Pugmire Manuscript
The book is about halfway laid out. So, odds are really good that we'll have the layout done sometime this month. However, the art is coming in slower than expected (possibly due to the holidays).
If you check back to the Kickstarter campaign, we promised to deliver the product in January. We had planned to deliver the digital version then, give a little time for eagle-eyed backers to catch typos and other minor mistakes we might have missed, and then send the files off to the printer. However, with the art being a bit behind, and after discussing it with Rich, we've agreed that we'll go ahead and send out the book minus some of the art when it's laid out. This still gives everyone a chance to get to playing in the timeframe we agreed to, and allows us to collect those typos and other minor errata.
You'll still get the final, complete PDF in addition to this "0.9 release" version. Also, none of this currently puts the August due date for the printed books at risk.
Monarchies of Mau
Rich and I have been talking over art direction for Mau, and he's been sending me sketches of the iconic characters (some of which are Kickstarter backer characters that we had to move to this project). We've also been discussing the look and feel of the six cat houses -- a new concept for this universe. I think Mau will have a great look that fits in well with Pugmire, but still has some unique elements all its own. I've also been nailing down how magic works for cats with my design partner David, again shooting for something that feels connected to Pugmire but still offers unique opportunities. At this stage I have enough information to test some of these idea out at Midwinter this week (see below -- eep!), and from there I hope to hunker down and get some serious work done on the Early Access manuscript later this month.
Fiction Anthology
For the anthology I've been answering questions from writers, as well as reviewing a lot of pitches from a short open call Jim did earlier. I was pleased at the number of people who submitted, and I gave Jim my thoughts on each of the story pitches. We also talked about which story I'm going to be submitting to the anthology, which I need to revise at some point.
Pan's Guide
A few days ago I was in a Skype call with the Pan's Guide team, and we had a great kickoff discussion. One of the consulting developers was able to make the meeting as well, and he got a great chance to offer his thoughts on the project, as well as ask me some questions about the world of Pugmire. The team is now off and running on first drafts!
Earplay
Last month, I mentioned we were discussing outlines. Since then, I worked on bringing the whole team together: another writer, a voice director, a composer, the audio design team, and a number of talented voice actors. Now the scripts for all eight episodes have been written and revised at least once, and all of it has been put into our software. If all goes well, we're hoping to record next week, and then we'll dive right into editing and audio design. This is a whole new world for me, and I'm learning a ton and inventing a ton more as we go. While it's been stressful because I'm far out of my comfort zone, it's also very exciting, and I can't wait to listen to these actors bring the world of Pugmire to life!
And More
Midwinter Gaming Convention is this week, where I will be testing out a few different Pugmire projects, including Monarchies of Mau and some card game ideas. Rich and I will be there, and would love to talk to any backers or Pugmire fans who can make it! I expect we'll also chat with each other a bit more about the upcoming Mau Kickstarter, so this is a great opportunity to get an idea stuck in our heads.
This time last year, I was nervous because we were getting ready to launch the Pugmire Kickstarter, and I had no idea what the future would hold. One year later, things are in a very different place, and now I'm anxious for very different reasons. It's been a year of hard work, both for me and for everyone who has been helping on the growing number of Pugmire projects, and soon all of you will begin to see the fruits of our labor. That's enough to make anyone nervous, but the Pugmire community -- all of YOU -- have near-universally been excited, understanding, and passionate about this world of the ancient future in the best possible way. Every time someone sends me a funny dog meme or tells me how excited they are for the game, it helps me put my head down and get back to work.
I think 2017 will be a great year for Pugmire, and all of you are a big part of that. So, thank you for your continued support!
December Pugmire Update!
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Dec 06, 2016 at 10:11:40 PM
Hi, Rose here, with news from Eddy and new photos from Rich.
---
EDDY:
As the year winds down, it's time for the last Pugmire update of 2016!
PUGMIRE MANUSCRIPT
All of the relevant playtest comments were reviewed and incorporated into the final edit of the manuscript. I tweaked a few last-minute things that bugged me, and now it's all in the hands of the art director, Mike Chaney. He's reached out to some artists, and I believe sketches are coming in (at least, files are appearing in my Dropbox folder). There's a lot of art to hire out, and I can't wait to see it all!
MONARCHIES OF MAU
A lot of my focus has been thinking through some elements of designing Mau, as well as doing research on cats and how people relate to cats beyond my own experiences. From there I used the backer-offered cat characters as a springboard to make what I call the "iconic" characters of the setting, which represent the various ideas and concepts I want to explore. Now I've got a few chapters done, and I'm in the weeds of making new tricks (which I'm considering renaming into "secrets" to feel more cat-like). The tricky part right now is finding what areas I can change to offer a new experience, while also making sure that Mau and Pugmire characters can easily play together in the same chronicle.
FICTION ANTHOLOGY
Jim and I are at the "trading regular emails" stage of things. He's getting pitches from interested writers, and I'm compiling a master world document based on Pugmire, Mau, and some other things stuck in my head (like the secrets of the world that I don't want to print but I need writers to know so they don't inadvertantly reveal them). I'm expecting to see first drafts in a few months!
PAN'S GUIDE
The outlining phase is taking a bit longer than expected, mainly because Matt and I have some ideas on how we can push the envelope, but we need to do some tests to make sure those ideas actually work in practice. Right now Mike Chaney is doing a quick test layout of some example text to see if we can structure the manuscript the right way.
EARPLAY
Dave and I are trading notes on the chapter outlines, and things are shaping up nicely. His experience has been immensely helpful in making sure the story strikes the right balance of fun and compelling from an interactive standpoint. The working title for it is "Friends and Enemies," and I'm hoping to spend this month nailing down the script.
MIDWINTER GAMING CONVENTION
As a reminder, a good chunk of the Onyx Path crew will be heading out to Milwaukee January 12th - 15th for Midwinter Gaming Convention. You can find more information at http://www.midwintergamingconvention.com/.
There will be a ton of Pugmire things there. The Wrecking Crew will be running games of Pugmire, and I'll host the first-ever session of Monarchies of Mau. I'll also be testing out some (yes, more than one) prototypes of Pugmire-themed card games I've been working on. On top of that, my friends at Earplay are also coming out, and we'll have some cool stuff to show you. Midwinter is certainly turning into a great place to try out the very latest Pugmire projects!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
And with that, I'm heading back to work -- there's a lot to do, and December's always rough to coordinate with people with the holidays around the corner.
---
ROSE:
And for a proper sendoff, here's Rich's office, adorned with art for the game.
November Pugmire Update!
over 7 years ago
– Fri, Nov 04, 2016 at 09:33:48 PM
Hi, folks, Rose here. ^_^ I've got updates this month from both Rich and Eddy, including progress, convention news, and Rich's latest art!
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Eddy
Hello, everyone! Have you all been good dogs lately? I hope so, because it's time for this month's update!
PUGMIRE PLAYTESTING AND MANUSCRIPT
I got the edits back a couple of days ago, and I've already started diving in. (I needed to get the background material to the anthology writers, so it made sense to use the latest version of the files.) So far, it looks like Dixie did a great job, and I expect I'll have her edits reviewed and integrated in no time.
From there, I'll incorporate relevant playtest comments from the Google Doc. Over the past month I checked in a few times just to make sure everything was going okay. While I got some unusual and downright random comments, I also got a lot of fantastic feedback which has been immensely helpful. I've already turned the document to view-only, and once I'm done with everything I'll be deleting it, so hopefully everyone got their feedback in by the 1st. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and test out the new systems!
I also had a great conversation with Rich Thomas and Mike Chaney about the art direction of the book. They had some great ideas to make the book even better, and Mike's going to do a test layout to check and see if our pagecount estimate is accurate (since this book is a smaller size than most Onyx Path products). Rich has also been doing reference sketches for all the characters, and they're looking great!
MONARCHIES OF MAU
I spent a chunk of the past month thinking over how to approach Monarchies of Mau. I wrote up a short pitch document for it, similar to what I sent way back when I first approached Onyx Path about doing Pugmire. That led to a great conversation with Rich and a few other people, and I've got a pretty good idea of how I'm going to proceed with the game featuring our feline friends. (I was also able to incorporate some of those ideas back into the Pugmire book, so the Mau material there lines up with what I'm thinking now). I'll take chunks of the Pugmire manuscript and use them as the basis for "Monarchies of Mau Early Access." From there, I'll write the new material. Since I'm not doing the whole thing from scratch, putting MoMEA together should be relatively quick, and it's something I can work on between discussing art and layout on the core Pugmire book.
OTHER PUGMIRE STUFF
I'm discussing outlines and initial ideas with the leads of the fiction anthology and Pan's Guide, but I expect those will start taking off soon!
Meanwhile, the Pugmire Earplay has been moving forward. I've hashed out the design and chapter outlines so Dave Grossman can go over them and help me pull out the best parts. From there, we'll move into scriptwriting, and then recording! I've also gotten tentative agreements with potential leading actors, who I can't wait to announce! More information will come out soon, but so far things are looking great.
Working on audio drama helped me to think about some different nuances of the Pugmire world. For example, way back in my very first story "Winter of Man," I had a line about how dogs and cats had different languages, but I was never happy with how the permutations of multiple languages have played out. This led to some particular snags in casting the audio drama, as well as some of the design.
Talking over some of these issues with Rich, we hit on the idea that perhaps the Old Ones developed a universal polyglot that was taught to the various uplifted animals. Over the years, that language has evolved a bit, so dogs and cats have their own lexicon and syntax, but the core of the language is still universal. This felt really good to me, and it also cleared up another point of the lore: the so-called "mystical language" of humanity is actually a jumble of all the pre-polyglot languages. I'm going to make a few minor adjustments to the other products to reflect this, but it goes to show that working on Pugmire in different mediums helps make the whole world stronger!
MIDWINTER GAMING CONVENTION
As we have for the past couple of years, a good chunk of the Onyx Path crew will be heading out to Milwaukee January 12th - 15th for Midwinter Gaming Convention. You can find more information at http://www.midwintergamingconvention.com/.
There will be a ton of Pugmire things there. The Wrecking Crew will be running games of Pugmire, and I'll host the first-ever session of Monarchies of Mau. I'll also be testing out some (yes, more than one) prototypes of Pugmire-themed card games I've been working on. On top of that, my friends at Earplay are also coming out, and on Sunday we'll have some cool stuff to show you -- maybe even a sneak listen of Pugmire on Earplay. Midwinter is certainly turning into a great place to try out the very latest Pugmire ideas!
AND EVEN MORE!
And there's even more, but not much I can talk about at the moment. I'm in the process of sorting out a licensing agreement for a potentially fun Pugmire-related project. I have some early ideas for the non-interactive audio drama. I'm brainstorming fun and achievable stretch goals for the Monarchies of Mau Kickstarter next year. Trust me -- the Pugmire train isn't slowing down anytime soon!
Which means I need to get back to work. I'll have another update for everyone in December!
---
Rich
I've been steadily working away on the descriptions of known Pugmire NPCs that Eddy sent me, including a fair number of our NPCs sent in from our Kickstarter NPCs Reward Tiers. These aren't the "Artist Model" rEwards, but those reference shots will also be in play as we send them to our artists to include in their illustrations. Generally, I'll draw in pencil the Pugmire NPC character with an eye towards their profession, social status, and breed, using reference photos if those have been included. Pugmire clothing styles are deliberately a bit of a mix of our historical periods, in that the Dogs have some documentation of how Man dressed that they aim at duplicating, so they aren't evolving their fashion as humanity did through the centuries. One recent fashion innovation, though, that has been met with some mixed feelings, is a tendency for the younger Dogs at court to wear more heavily decorated and involved clothing than previous generations did. Some have attributed this to a "cat influence" coming about as the cat/dog conflict became more of a cold war and trade was normalized.
I'll scan the pencil art in, tweak the tones and sometimes clean up the sketch a bit in Photoshop, and then add written notes for the artists on colors and details. I also collect the scans into a "line up" in order to compare heights so we get a feel for their relative sizes, as shown here.
September Update, and Playtesting!
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Oct 04, 2016 at 08:40:35 PM
Hi, everyone. Rose here, with an important update from Eddy!
---
Greetings, good dogs! I have a lot to cover, so let's dive right in!
PUGMIRE MANUSCRIPT
As I mentioned last month, I took a few weeks to carefully go through and carefully revise everything in the manuscript so the stuff I wrote several months ago lines up with the stuff I wrote last month. It's now in the hands of the editor (Dixie Cochran, who was the editor for Early Access), and I should be getting it back in early November.
I'm also working on art notes with Rich Thomas and Mike Chaney. This includes the folks who backed to have their dogs and cats drawn as characters -- as I mentioned last month, some of the cat characters will be moved to Monarchies of Mau, but I'm pretty sure every dog character will be in the book in some way, and I did find a way to sneak a couple of the cat characters into this book. We're getting artists on board and kicking around ideas to make this book look as amazing as possible with the budget we have.
PUGMIRE PLAYTESTING!
As promised last month, I have a playtest document for everyone! It's up as a Google Doc, where folks should be able to leave comments. Here's the link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kZONwAfyF4nyhezF51RqdenllvUkeBRBYrp_UQ5wTNI/edit#heading=h.byd1kzcjubp7
It's a rough compilation of all relevant changes from Early Access to the current draft of Pugmire, presented in chapter order. It’s also very long -- over 80 pages! In order to keep it from being even longer, I cut a lot of ancillary text. So, if you don’t see something here, it’s probably as written in Early Access, and you’ll need it to test these -- if you don’t have it, check the very first update if you’re a backer, or you can get it via DriveThruRPG. Remember that this is a pre-edited version of the material, so it's possible that anything here might change or be removed before the final release.
The best way to offer feedback is to leave a comment on this document. The worst way is to leave comments on the Kickstarter page or the Onyx Path blog, as I’m unlikely to see them. I might accept email or messaged comments, but odds are I’ll ask you to put them here instead. (My process is to go through all the comments once I get the edited manuscript back, so having them all here more or less in order is really helpful.)
When leaving comments:
- Civility goes a long way, both to me and to other posters. Be a good dog.
- Because this is already in editing, don’t worry about typos or copy editing mistakes unless it changes the understanding of a rule. For example, “heat dmage” isn’t an issue, and will get caught by the editor. On the other hand, “hat damage” might be confusing, so point that out.
- Mention if you’ve playtested the change. Saying “I don’t like this” isn’t as helpful as “My group tried it out, and found this specific problem.”
I plan to close this on or after November 1st, so please get any comments in by then!
OTHER PUGMIRE STUFF
Pugmire Earplay, the fiction anthology, and Pan's Guide are all proceeding, but it's still largely back-end business and budget stuff. I pushed each of these forward in some way over September, so they're not just sitting idle, but I don't have much to talk about regarding any of these yet.
I'm also thinking of new things. I'm hoping to spend some time this month doing some initial brainstorming and worldbuilding for Monarchies of Mau, as well as some research into other areas outside of fiction, tabletop RPGs, and audio drama. So don't be surprised if you see some new Pugmire stuff on the horizon!
WE'RE CLOSE TO THE FINISH LINE!
Now that the manuscript is out of my hands, we're getting close to the finish line. I'll probably spend a couple of weeks going over the edits I get back from Dixie, and then toss it into layout. Things get tricky around the holidays, and Mike's a busy guy, but right now things still look to be on track for a January 2017 release of the PDF.
And with that, I'm back to work. Kick the tires on the playtest material, tell me what you like and what doesn't work, and I'll see you all again in November!
